


Arms Deep in the Wishing Well

by platonicbullshit



Series: I Did it Again and Again (I Think I've Learned Something) [2]
Category: Figure Skating RPF
Genre: Birthday Fluff, F/M, University AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-17
Updated: 2019-05-17
Packaged: 2020-03-06 18:04:59
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,258
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18856246
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/platonicbullshit/pseuds/platonicbullshit
Summary: The song comes to an end – loud and boisterous with what Tessa thinks must be Scott banging on the table until the cupcakes shake – and Tessa closes her eyes to make a wish before she blows out her candles.[Or: five years of Tessa's birthdays]





	Arms Deep in the Wishing Well

**Author's Note:**

> Hello there! In honor of Tessa’s birthday, here’s a little companion piece to I Think The Rest of Campus Melted Away!! I know a sequel has been much requested and this isn’t quite that, but I do hope it will satisfy your cravings for more content in this universe. 
> 
> That being said, you're probably going to want to have read The Rest of Campus first. I'm not really sure how much sense this will make without it.
> 
> Also, I started writing this while drunk one night a few weeks ago. When I opened the document the next morning, it was a jumble of semi-coherent nonsense, and in the middle was a drunken message to myself saying that I didn’t think I would remember any of it. There’s no reason for me to tell you this, I just thought it was funny. That being said, any errors are entirely drunk-me’s fault.

i. 18

The month of May starts with a soft breeze and fragrant flower blossoms and afternoons spent vegging out in the warm sunshine. Tessa feels her backpack growing considerably lighter as the number of classes she has remaining drops into the single digits, and she’s never felt more content than the afternoons she spends splayed out in the cool grass, reluctantly laughing at something Scott had said.

And then a week passes, and finals hit her like a train going full speed. She surrenders her afternoons of lolling in the sun in exchange for locking herself in a study room in the library without windows to let a drop of the natural golden light in. Instead, she soaks in the pale flickering from the overhead light and the harsh backlighting of her computer as she wills her brain to absorb everything she was supposed to have learned in her psych class over the semester.

It all seemed to have melted away with the snow that had persisted well into April.

Tessa had never wanted to sit for an exam – let alone five – less than she does during the last week of her first spring semester, as the warm late-spring air taunts her just outside of the stuffy classrooms.

But then Tessa finds they’re over just as quickly as they had begun, and she still has two days of freedom before she has to check out of her dorm room and drive back to London with her mom.

And one of those days is her birthday.

She knows it won’t be a big affair, most of her friends are still deep in final exams, and those who have finished are getting ready to move back home for the summer vacation, but she still finds excitement building up in her stomach, making a home in the place that had been reserved for anxiety over her finals for the past week.

It’s a Thursday and Kaitlyn has a final at nine so it doesn’t start in the most glamorous of ways, but Tessa wakes up on her 18th birthday and she thinks there’s never been a day more perfect. She wakes up naturally instead of to her alarm for the first time in months and the sun streams in through her window and she’s finished with her first year of university and Tessa feels happier than she maybe ever has.

She lounges for a while, soaking in her utter lack of responsibility for the day, until her skin starts to itch with the need to _do something_ and she climbs out of bed to start her day. She dresses in her favorite sundress – the one with the soft blue-checkered pattern and that Kaitlyn disapproves of because the neckline isn’t low enough and the hem nearly brushes her knees – and she makes her way to her favorite patch of grass, sandals strapped to her feet and book tucked under her arm.

There’s no way she’d rather spend her day. She happily joins Scott and Chiddy for lunch and is grateful that Scott eases up slightly on the teasing. (“Just because it’s your birthday, Virtch. Don’t think I’m getting soft on you. Just for your birthday.”)

She gets dinner with Kaitlyn, and even Andrew tagging along doesn’t put a damper on her good mood.

The day is all around a low-key affair. She’s perfectly happy without a big celebration, just hanging out with her friends and the knowledge that in two days she’d be back home with her mom and a home made cake.

It’s not until Tessa reaches the top of the staircase and walks past the dark section lounge – she had been slightly confused when Kaitlyn had directed her to the stairs at the opposite end of the hall from their room – that it all clicks into place.

The room is dark, but soft light flickers from the table at the center of the room. Kaitlyn pulls Tessa to a stop and nudges her gently inside. As Tessa approaches the light she can tell that it’s coming from a row of candles flickering atop an array of cupcakes. Several dark figures surround the table the cakes are sitting on, and as she approaches they begin to sing happy birthday.

She’d had no expectations that her friends would host any sort of celebration for her birthday. She knows it’s finals week and they’re all still sorting through their exams. She had barely thought about her birthday herself until it was upon her. The fact that her friends had gone to the effort to plan out a surprise celebration has her smiling so wide her cheeks hurt.

The song comes to an end – loud and boisterous with a form Tessa thinks must be Scott banging on the table until the cupcakes shake – and Tessa closes her eyes to make a wish before she blows out her candles.

_I wish every year would be as incredible as this one has been._

When the candles are extinguished, the overhead lights flicker back on and Tessa finds herself faced with the shining faces of all of her friends. She passes out cupcakes, making sure that everyone has one before digging into one of her own, and then finds her place on a couch beside Scott.

“Happy birthday, T,” he whispers as he slings an arm around her shoulders.

“Thank you,” she whispers back.

ii. 19

“Good morning, birthday girl!” Scott yells as he bursts into her room. “Baby’s legal now!”

Tessa groans and rolls over, burying her face in her pillow. It can’t be later than nine in the morning, and the last wake up call she wants is an over enthusiastic Scott bounding into her room and yelling about alcohol.

“Go ‘way,” she grumbles, “’m sleeping.”

“Get up, sleepyhead!” Scott cackles as he rips the blankets away from her body, and she shivers as her bare skin is suddenly exposed to the cold air of her room.

“No.” She groans, reaching a flailing arm out in a weak attempt to pull the sheets back around her body. “It’s my birthday. I get to sleep in.”

Scott sighs dramatically before dropping Tessa’s blankets back over her and immediately flopping down onto her bed beside her. “I suppose you’re right. I just wanted to wish you a happy birthday before I head out to class.”

“Thank you.” Tessa turns her head slightly to look at him. He grins at her from his spot on the pillow next to her before dropping a kiss to her forehead.

“Happy birthday, Tess.” He says softly, before gently climbing out of her bed. “Now go back to bed. Tonight’s going to be a big night, you’re going to need all the rest you can get.”

He closes the door behind him, and Tessa just groans before rolling over and attempting to fall back asleep.

It’s several hours later when Scott kicks her out of the house for the afternoon. Tessa steps out of her final class of the semester and finds a message on her phone from Scott, reading, _dont come home yet. doing birthday prep. ill tell u when ur allowed back in the house._ Tessa rolls her eyes before shoving the device in her pocket and heading in the direction of the library. It’s not the most ideal way to spend her birthday, but at least she’ll be able to get a head start on studying for her finals.

Scott takes her out to dinner, picking her up from the library and driving her to her favorite restaurant in town.

“Is this an apology for banning me from my own house for the entire afternoon?” Tessa asks over her salad and the glass of wine that she had excitedly ordered for herself.

“No, this is because it’s your birthday!” Scott exclaims. “Banning you from the house was also because it’s your birthday, so I see nothing to apologize for.”

He sticks his nose in the air and Tessa giggles.

When Scott finally takes Tessa back to the house, she is relieved to see that the lights are out and there aren’t many cars lining the streets. She’d been concerned that Scott and Chiddy had planned a wild party with loud music and exorbitant drinking. She’s hopeful that this means they’ll be eating cake and drinking more wine and watching the Princess Bride.

Her hopes are dashed the moment she steps through the doorway and flicks on the lights and everyone she has ever met during her time in Toronto jumps out, screaming “SURPRISE!”

Her first instinct is to turn on her heel and march right back out of the house, but when she tries she finds herself faced with Scott’s bright, proud smile, and Tessa would do anything to keep that look on his face, so she plasters on what she hopes is a convincing smile and shoots him a thumbs up.

She’ll get through the night. She’s just going to need a bit of alcohol.

It turns out that drinking at 19 isn’t much different than drinking at 18 – the vodka still burns on the way down, it’s just no longer accompanied by the guilt of rule breaking. She throws back two vodka cranberries faster than recommended and lets the warmth of intoxication wash over her.

When her second drink settles in her stomach the noise is immediately less grating and she feels infinitely lighter as she walks through the house in search of Scott.

She finds him in the living room, holding court from the couch as she had expected. He’s flushed and gesticulating, and she can tell he’s had more than a couple of beers. He’s sitting on the largest couch in their house, but he’s the only on taking up residence there. A small crowd of their mutual friends is gathered around him, however, sitting in various chairs from around the house and on the floor and some are even standing. Tessa shakes her head at the image.

“Tessa!” He crows when he spots her, throwing his arms open in a gesture for her to join him on the couch. “C’mere, birthday girl!”

Tessa shakes her head at his slurred speech, letting out an exasperated laugh under her breath, but fitting herself into the space at his side nonetheless. She knows that there’s no reason for her to be tucked so close into him, pressed against his side from shoulder to knee. There’s an entire expanse of empty couch on either side of them, but Scott’s arm weighs heavy across her shoulder, holding her in place, and she rationalizes that it would be weirder to extract herself and arrange them with a more friendly distance than to just stay where he’s positioned her, so she relaxes against him and loses herself to the story he’s telling about one of his wacky math professors.

The crowd shifts and evolves over the course of the night, people moving to sway on the makeshift dance floor on the other side of the room, friends coming up to wish her a happy birthday, people getting sucked into Scott’s stories. Tessa finds she can’t go more than thirty minutes without another drink pressed into her hand, and she’s not complaining.

At some point, Chiddy comes and whispers in Scott’s ear and then Tessa finds herself being ushered into the kitchen, the crowd of her friends and acquaintances and classmates trailing behind her. She finds a massive sheet cake with the words “Happy Birthday, Jessica” scrawled across it in pink icing.

“The guy at the bakery must have misheard me,” Chiddy shrugs apologetically. But then Tessa glances at Scott and there’s a glint in his eyes and she thinks she catches him winking, and suddenly Chiddy’s story seems much less likely.

She can’t dwell on it too long, however, because the candles are lit and everyone is singing raucously and she knows she’s blushing furiously, both from the attention directed at her and the alcohol coursing through her veins. She sighs in relief when the song comes to a loud, rowdy end. She closes her eyes, makes a silent wish, and blows out the candles in front of her.

_I wish that I’ll always have these people in my life._

The cake isn’t really served, Scott and Chiddy just take pieces for themselves and make sure Tessa has one and then all three abandon the kitchen, leaving everyone else to attack the remaining cake as they see fit.

At midnight, Tessa finds herself on her couch once again, this time sandwiched between Scott and Chiddy, pleasantly intoxicated and with a big piece of cake on her lap, and she thinks that it’s the perfect way to end her birthday.

It only gets better when Scott starts to shoo people out of the house, sensing that Tessa is wearing thin and redirecting the crowd to several other parties that are still raging down the street in either direction. Tessa smiles gratefully as Scott scoops the now empty plate from her lap, dropping a peck to her cheek as he goes.

“Thank you,” she calls sleepily after him. She can feel her eyelids growing heavier as her limbs melt into the couch beneath her.

“Come on, sleepy girl,” Scott’s voice is suddenly in her ear as she feels an arm wrap around her torso and one slide beneath her knees. “Let’s get you to bed.”

He carries her down the hall, and Tessa knows that if she were any more awake or any less drunk, she’d probably be embarrassed, but as it is she just buries her face in his chest and lets him set her gently in her bed. She thinks she feels him brush a kiss across her forehead, but in the morning she won’t be able to remember if she dreamed it or not.

“Thanks,” she manages to mumble before the door closes.

“Happy birthday, T.” He says softly, and then the door clicks shut, and Tessa is lost to unconsciousness.

iii. 20

Tessa loves that her birthday is in late spring. She loves the fresh flowers, the chirping birds, and the warm sunshine on her skin. It’s her favorite season, and there’s no time she’d rather celebrate. The only downside is that every year, her birthday has fallen around finals week, and she’s spent the days leading up to her big day cooped up in the library and in classrooms, studying for and taking exams.

She’s come to expect this routine, to the point where she’s genuinely surprised to find that her twentieth birthday falls almost a week after the end of her finals, and she’ll actually be celebrating at home, instead of with her friends in her apartment in Toronto.

It’s just for a weekend, because she’ll be spending the summer in Toronto doing research for her thesis, but it’s nice to be home.

It makes her feel like a little kid, being wrapped up in a hug from her mom first thing in the morning, opening presents over pancakes for breakfast, lounging around her childhood home all day. It lacks any of the chaos that had been her last two birthdays, or, hell, the last three years. She drinks coffee and goes shopping and calls her sister and there’s a comforting home cooked meal at the end of the day, and it’s all she could have asked for at the end of the whirlwind of her third year at university.

Her hometown feels almost tainted now, haunted by the memories of her last visit to the area. As she treks around the area that she used to call home, she fights off the mental images of her Christmas vacation with Scott. She refuses to let him have that power over her. This weekend is her time to be selfish, to take back her hometown for herself and make fresher memories that don’t include Scott.

She goes out to lunch with her mom at a restaurant she’d taken Scott to and orders something new. Her mom shoots her a confused look – the restaurant had always been one of Tessa’s favorites, and she’s had the same order since age twelve – but Tessa just shrugs.

“To new adventures and trying new things,” Tessa toasts when their wine arrives.

“To trying new things,” her mom echoes, clinking their glasses together. Tessa smiles. That should do to replace her memories of other lunch dates.

She drags her mom to the shops that afternoon, insisting on buying her a new sweater and a pair of sunglasses despite her mother’s protests that it’s Tessa’s birthday, and she should be the one being spoiled.

“Spoil me by letting me spoil you, mom.” Tessa argues back, and she watches her mother deflate and accept the items. Tessa grins. Gift giving memories? Replaced.

They spend the evening vegging on the couch, a bottle of wine between them, Princess Bride playing in the background. Tessa knows the movie so well, she doesn’t have to pay much attention in order to follow the plot. Instead, she tells her mom all about her year at school, her friends, her research, and her classes.

“It’s good to have you home, Tess.” Her mother says, reaching out to tuck a strand of hair behind her ear.

“It’s good to be home.” Tessa says. “It would be better with ice cream, though.”

Her mom smiles slyly. Tessa had told her she hadn’t wanted a cake, but she knew that her mother always kept her freezer well stocked with ice cream. Tessa had to get it from somewhere, she figured.

“Go check the freezer, I’m pretty sure there’s a new tub of triple fudge in there.”

Tessa scrambles off the couch at the prospect, feeling herself once again tap into her childlike instincts as she races across the house in search of ice cream.

Her heart sinks when she finds the last tub with barely a single scoop at the bottom of the drawer.

“Mom!” She cries, “how could you betray me like this? There’s none left!”

Her mother’s laughter follows her as Tessa gets into her car and heads to the store. It’s nine o’clock on a Saturday night and she’s feeling desperate. It is her birthday, after all, she can’t have a birthday without chocolate in some form or another.

She finds herself in the freezer aisle, eyes bouncing back and forth between the triple fudge and deluxe chocolate flavors, trying to decide which to buy, before deciding on both. She’s tucking a carton under either arm, turning toward the end of the aisle and moving to be rung up when she hears her name.

“Tessa?” The voice makes her turn on her heel, and she finds herself face to face with Scott. He smiles sheepishly at her, runs a hand through his hair and shuffles his feet for a second. She can only stare, trying to soak him in.

She hasn’t seen him since… well, since _that night_ , and she thinks he looks just as disheveled now as he had then. His hair is getting long, almost too long, if you ask her, and she thinks she could see a shadow of scruff along his cheeks and chin if she squinted. He shoves his hands into the pockets of his jeans as he shrinks under her stare, and she recoils.

It’s not like she’s the image of glamor, either, standing there in sweats and tennis shoes, her hair piled in a bun on top of her head, two tubs of ice cream in her arms.

But then, it is her birthday. She figures she has an excuse.

“Are you home for the summer?” He asks, still standing at the other end of the aisle from her. She thinks she shouldn’t be able to hear him with the volume he’s speaking at, but the store is abandoned at the late hour and his voice is crystal clear in her ears.

“Just for the weekend,” she explains, shrugging her shoulders as best she can without losing her grip on the ice creams. He nods, still shuffling his feet.

“Right,” he says, even quieter now. “Happy birthday.”

“Thanks, Scott.” She says, noting the way his eyes flicker to her face when she says his name. He searches her face for a moment, and she wonders what he finds. She wonders if it was what he was looking for.

“No big party this year, T?” The question falls from his lips so naturally, she’s almost transported back to a time when things were easy between them. But his voice is strained and the smile on his face is clearly forced.

“No, not this year,” she says, suddenly unable to meet his eyes. “Just a night in with my mom. Nothing too wild.”

“That sounds more your speed, anyway,” he says. A silence falls between them, and Tessa can’t decide if it’s awkward or not. “Right, well, I should be heading home. And you wouldn’t want that ice cream to melt. Good night, Tessa.”

“Good night, Scott.” He’s already turned to leave the aisle as she says it, and she pictures her words hitting his back as though it were a brick wall, bouncing off and falling to her feet.

But then he turns over his shoulder and looks her in the eye once more before whispering, “happy birthday, T.”

Later, when she has a bowl of ice cream in her lap and she can use the movie as an excuse for her tears, she makes a wish over an imaginary candle in her dessert.

_I wish things would go back to the way they were._

iv. 21

When Tessa pictures her ideal birthday, it doesn’t usually involve sitting at the head of a table in a noisy restaurant in Toronto with her mom and sister seated to her left, Scott and his mother seated to her right, and Scott’s father staring at her from the opposite end. Her ideal birthday doesn’t usually include one too many glasses of wine to get through the night, or Scott’s mom being overly interested in her thesis work, or the entire restaurant watching as her and Scott’s families and the wait staff sing happy birthday to her over a flaming brownie.

Ideally, Tessa’s birthday wouldn’t fall the day before she and Scott graduate. Ideally, her birthday wouldn’t fall at a time both her family and the family of the guy she’s maybe-sort of-kind of seeing are both in town. Ideally, Tessa’s birthday wouldn’t involve all of them meeting up at her favorite Toronto restaurant, where she thinks she can never show her face again.

Thank god she’s moving to Montreal in just a few short days. She’s not sure she can show her face anywhere in Toronto again after the display her mother is putting on with Scott’s.

And thank god neither of their brothers could make it to dinner. She doesn’t think she could have handled the four of them causing chaos and wreaking havoc.

Instead, she’s subjected to her mother telling Scott and the Moirs embarrassing childhood stories that have Scott grinning devilishly and Tessa wishing she could melt into the ground. But then his hand finds her knee under the table for a brief moment and the smile he sends her is sincere rather than teasing and she feels grounded once again.

Before she knows it her mom and Scott’s parents are bickering over the check and she ignores them in favor of an unspoken conversation with Scott through glances, just grateful she doesn’t have to foot the bill and fully distracted by what Scott is portraying with his eyes.

 _Think they’re ever going to sort this out?_ He asks, eyes shifting over to where they’re trying to come to a compromise about splitting the bill somehow.

 _Doubt it,_ she responds with a quirk of her eyebrows.

 _Wanna escape the families for the night?_ They’ll be busy with graduation and moving both of their things out of the house for the next few nights, and Tessa feels her stomach drop slightly every time she thinks about the time they’ll spend apart.

 _Yes please,_ she says back as Scott’s father finally manages to wrestle the check from her mother’s hands.

“Well, it seems you all have this sorted, so I think Tess and I are gonna head home.” Scott announces aloud, pushing his chair away from the table noisily and drawing the attention of several other restaurant patrons in addition to the four other occupants at the table. He extends a hand toward Tessa and she takes it, standing from her seat with what she hopes is more grace than Scott had.

“Already? What a shame,” Alma clucks, standing as well and gesturing for hugs. “It was so lovely celebrating with you, Tessa. Happy birthday, my dear.”

Tessa accepts the hug gratefully, squeezing the woman tight before moving to embrace Scott’s father as well.

“I’m glad you could make it!” She says before turning to her own family.

Her mom hugs her tightly, and Tessa is reminded that she doesn’t hug her mother enough anymore, before turning to her sister.

“Happy birthday, Tess,” Jordan says, but Tessa can tell based on the look on her sister’s face that she has more to say. It’s not until she has Tessa wrapped up in her arms that she adds in a soft whisper, “use protection.”

Tessa pulls away far enough to shoot her sister a scandalized look, which sends both girls into peals of laughter that draws further attention from the people dining around them.

“I love you, T.” Jordan says before pulling away entirely.

When Tessa finally breaks away from the birthday wishes, it’s to find Scott standing a couple feet away from the table, her coat on his arm, a hand extended out to her.

“Let’s go home,” he says, and she goes willingly.

At the house, Scott leads her to the kitchen, where he sets a single chocolate cupcake with a candle on top in front of her.

“I’m not going to sing to you again because I don’t think either of our ears could handle it, but I thought you might want to actually blow out a candle and make a wish. I know that kind of thing is important to you.” He explains as he strikes a match and lights the candle.

“Thank you,” she says, eyes shimmering as she meets his over the flame in front of her.

She bites her lip as she thinks about what to wish for.

_I wish things could always be this easy._

She blows out the candle and Scott’s eyes still sparkle in the harsh light of their kitchen. She pulls the candle out of the frosting on top of the cupcake before breaking it in half and passing one half to him. He smiles gratefully and doesn’t hesitate before taking an enthusiastic bite. She just roles her eyes and wipes away the bit of frosting that has ended up on his nose.

Before she can pull away, he catches her wrist and pulls her hand to his mouth, licking away the frosting and pressing a kiss to her fingertips.

She sucks in a breath, but goes back to eating her cupcake as soon as she has her hand back.

“Hey, I wanted to talk to you about something,” he says suddenly, causing Tessa to look up from her treat.

“Hm?” She hums, signaling for him to continue.

“So, I know I’m driving you up to Montreal in a couple of days, and you have school all sorted out there and you know what you’re doing.” She giggles softly at his rambling. She can tell he’s nervous, and it’s wildly endearing. “And I don’t want you to think I’m like, inviting myself or anything, but I just wanted you to know I have some job interviews up there. Just, like, in case you want me. To stay there. With you. If you want.”

Tessa can’t help the giggle that escapes her lips, but she immediately wishes she could retract it when she sees the way Scott’s eyes go wide at the sound and his eyes start flicking frantically across her face.

“Hey, no, don’t spiral.” She says softly, reaching out to take one of his hands in her own. “That’s incredible, Scott. I’m so proud of you.”

“Oh,” he sighs in relief. “Wait, so that means you want me to go in for them? The interviews, that is? Like, I could get a job in Montreal? You would want that?”

“Of course I would, Scott.” She says, letting out a little huff of a laugh. “I always want you with me. Wherever in the world I am, I want you there.”

“Oh, good.” He says, and she grins as he starts to smile again. “I want to be where you are, too.”

“So move to Montreal with me,” she says, squeezing his hand.

“I think I can do that.”

v. 22

Tessa’s twenty-second birthday starts like any other day. She wakes up mourning the loss of Scott’s arms around her, but grateful to find him in the kitchen, plating a poached egg on toast for her. He kisses her forehead and hands her a cup of coffee before he’s out the door, and she heads in to the lab.

The day is truly insignificant, just another Tuesday spent running subjects and analyzing data, but made better by hourly texts from Scott with variations of happy birthday wishes.

When she finally finishes up her work she heads home, knowing they have a reservation to make. She gets dressed in one of her favorite dresses – a red and lacy number that straddles the feminine and badass line beautifully – and twists her hair into a bun at the top of her head. She’s just swiping on a touch of lipstick when Scott gets home, finding her immediately and sweeping her into his arms.

“Happy birthday, Tess,” he mumbles into the junction of her neck.

He dresses in the outfit she’d picked out for him – “The best gift you could give me is wearing a properly fitting shirt, Scott” – and after she wrestles a tub of hair gel from his hands, they’re out the door.

The restaurant is small and cozy, full of dark furnishings and soft instrumental jazz and candlelight. Tessa loves it.

They hold hands over the table as they wait for their appetizers, and Scott lifts them to his lips to brush kisses over the backs of her knuckles. Tessa knows that she’s burning red, and is silently grateful for the dim candlelight.

Scott tells her about his day at work and she tells him about her current research project. They split a bottle of wine and Scott lets her order something fruity and white, even though she knows he hates it. They each order entrees, but when Scott’s arrives and Tessa decides his looks much better than hers, he switches with her willingly. It’s comfortable and easy and there’s nowhere Tessa would rather be.

They order dessert, but don’t tell their waiter it’s Tessa’s birthday. She doesn’t want the candle and the singing, but when her lava cake arrives she closes her eyes to make a wish anyway.

_I wish everything could stay exactly the way it is right now._

When she opens her eyes, Scott is grinning at her over his cheesecake.

“What?” She asks, picking up her spoon.

“Nothing.” Scott says, still smiling widely. “I love you.”

“I love you, too!” She says happily, her spoon halfway to her mouth.

“Happy birthday, Tess.”


End file.
